Washington – New international climate data show that 2005 is on track to be the hottest year on record, continuing a 25- year trend of rising global temperatures.
Climatologists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies calculated the record-breaking global average temperature, which surpasses 1998’s record by a tenth of a degree Fahrenheit, from readings at 7,200 weather stations worldwide.
The new analysis comes as government and independent scientists are reporting other dramatic signs of global warming, such as the record shrinkage of the Arctic ice cover and unprecedented high water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico.
Late last month, a team of University of Colorado and NASA scientists announced that the Arctic ice cap shrank this past summer to 200 million square miles, 500,000 square miles less than its average area between 1979 and 2000.
And a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined that sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico were higher in August than at any time since 1890, which may have contributed to the intense hurricanes that struck the region this year.
“At this point, people shouldn’t be surprised this is happening,” said Goddard atmospheric scientist David Rind.
Many climatologists, and policymakers in several countries, believe the rapid temperature rise of the past 50 years is heavily driven by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities that have spewed greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. A vocal minority of scientists say it is the result of a natural cycle.
